In 2021, Havering Council charged you for an investigation it then banned you from reading. It has since billed you for two failed legal bids to keep it covered up.

On Friday, after a court ordered Havering for a third time to end its cover-up, the council issued a press release attacking the Romford Recorder, calling our work “ridiculous”.

It was the latest development in a three-year saga.

In 2021, it handed an internal investigation into allegations of institutional bigotry to the Local Government Association, which found a “disturbing” culture of “normalised” racism and sexism.

But taxpayers and even elected councillors were barred from reading the evidence.

We didn’t think that was right: Taxpayers had funded the alleged abuse of staff, funded the investigation, and were then billed for a package of remedial interventions.

We complained to the government data watchdog, but it said forcing Havering to come clean about its racism and sexism issues would deter other councils from investigating their own.

Again, we didn’t think that was right - so we took the unusual step of going to court.

We argued that there was overwhelming public interest in allowing taxpayers to scrutinise serious allegations about local councils they bankrolled and voted for.

We also argued that the justification for the cover-up set a dangerous precedent: If councils could suppress embarrassing information on grounds that releasing it would incentivise other councils to mount their own cover-ups, where would that end?

In summer 2024, three tribunal judges agreed there was overwhelming public interest in letting Havering taxpayers see the document.

But instead of releasing it as instructed, Havering sought an appeal and issued a press release saying the document shouldn’t be released because it was “historic” – failing to mention that it was only historic because the council had wasted three years refusing to release it.

When its appeal bid was thrown out, the council appealed again. Its points were again ruled “inarguable”, with “no realistic prospect of success”.

Last week, Havering released a redacted and unenlightening version of the investigation, containing none of the allegations the LGA had referenced.

It was hard to believe they had wasted time and money trying to cover up such a bland, neutered document.

It was accompanied by a highly critical statement about the Romford Recorder and our work on taxpayers’ behalf.

It falsely claimed we had said Havering could “pull back on painful cuts” if it wasn’t still funding its racism and sexism cover-up.

We have never said any such thing. We merely questioned the financial decision-making of a council that almost went bankrupt this year and is now seeking unpopular cuts, yet repeatedly spent residents’ money on pointless, unwinnable appeals.

The press release accused us of having “little regard for hard working council workers” and said we had spent three years in a legal battle “for a perceived ‘scoop’ and some hits on their website”.

This is simply wrong. Every step we have taken has been taken in the spirit of accountability and, crucially, in the public interest.

An independent court had affirmed that we were right to do so on three separate occasions.

This press release issued by the council should be retracted immediately and an apology issued.

Had it done the right thing in 2021, it could have avoided the costly, drawn-out ignominy of losing appeal after appeal.